Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SO review

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Gigabyte GTX 580 SO edition

The GV-N580SO-15I is equipped with GIGABYTE Extreme Dual BIOS technology, press this button and you'll switch to the second BIOS (press when powered off -- of course). The button pressed down should activate the 2nd BIOS and thus the extreme. There was no difference in-between BIOS mode 1 and 2 on our card though. Both seem to have the extreme BIOS, which is the factory overclock, slightly higher voltage versus good cooling and silent operation. 

To the right of the button you can see voltage monitoring point. It's not at all a good implementation. The pins would bee too close to each other and there is no description of what is what.

Gigabyte GTX 580 SO edition

Also make note of the fact that the VRM zone is nicely covered with additional heatsinks, this helps keeping temperatures under control and also benefits for overclocking. We definitely like to see these small yet intricate details. It means the design was though through well.

Gigabyte GTX 580 SO edition

Once the ambient air has been used to cool the GPU, the hot air will be blown outside the PC as much as it can, but it will only be partly though, so you do need to make sure that you have proper ventilation inside the PC chassis.

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